Courtesy RobW @ Flickr
Hydra circa 1970. Mostly a tourist destination, this little Greek island has changed little thanks to a strict policy against motor vehicles. Everyone walks everywhere. Imagine that.
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According to comScore, Global Internet Audience has surpassed 1 billion visitors. While on technology forums the news was barely covered, let alone analyzed, and publications like The Economist didn’t offer further intel, I think the implications deserve more discussion. In brief, comScore reports China contributed 179,710 unique visitors in December 2008, while the United States (the traditional leader) only 163,300. For China this represents barely 13% of their population while for the U.S. is around 55%. Using Gapminder we can compare the Internet penetration vs. Income to visualize the trend (even though only 2006 data is available): Over two years ago I wrote the post déjà vu, forecasting that the total penetration of Chinese users would reach 35%, using a simple comparison with the adoption of a similar technology back in the 90’s: the telephone. Considering that there are similarities in the way the two technologies are deployed, it is reasonable to use the comparison. In the case of the telephone it took China about 8 years to reach that milestone. The baseline I had used for this comparison was 2004 so we still have [...] Using the Emerging Markets Index released by Mastercard back in October, I’ve created something I’m going to call the Emerging Destination Index as a tool to provide clues as to which non-traditional tourist destinations may provide the fundamental infrastructure to sustain the type of travellers that I’ve been discussing over the last little while in this blog. The original index data is available from Mastercard, and all I did was to reconfigure the weights assigned by the original methodology to assign more value to those dimensions that have a higher impact on the ability of a traveller to operate remotely from the region with fair access to a urban standard of living. These are the weights I assigned: Economic and Commercial Environment (0%) – Used in the original index to measure time and costs for building a standard warehouse, registering a property, exporting/importing cargo, and rate corruption and foreign bond, it seemed mostly irrelevant for the purpose of this index, so I left it out. Courtesy photonooner @ Flickr Not too far from Forte Dei Marmi, hidden away by the Apennine Mountains, Isola Santa may provide the ideal retreat with the occasional escape to the fabulous region of Cinqueterre. However accommodation in the area will require some research. As we struggle to find ways to survive the current crisis and look at the leaders of the world to provide guidance, the latest Hub Culture 2009 Zeitgeist Ranking will come in handy as a tour of the cities that are better positioned to sustain an acceptable quality of life while providing plenty of opportunities to rebuild for the future. A zeitgeist reflecting the drama of our times: Washington,DC its not really about the Obamas – its about the context of our changing expectations of government Berlin Berliners become an enigma – povo at home, increasingly affluent abroad Beijing Just ignore the noxious skyline as you watch the GDP growth rates, still hovering near 9% Los Angeles LA’s fashion scene has stagnated, and the city’s hold on entertainment is slipping to diffusion by web 2.0 Tokyo the principles of kaizen (continuous improvement) are shaping a really cool new Japanese ecovibe Sydney The general attitude down under appears to be one of distant concern Saö Paulo Here, ‘crunch’ is in the quinoa, not in the financial vocabulary Hong Kong The city is rich enough to sit out the bust, and it can always rely on China’s neighboring Guangdong province to drive the local economy New York Hunger breeds innovation, because people actually have to think, plot and [...] You can read President Obama’s inauguration speech at the Huffington Post, but here is one of my favourite passages: For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. …the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve, indeed. Is the thought of being away from your desk unbearable, specially in these days when everyone is pressed to show their value. It may be easy to use the economic uncertainty to abandon any dreams of vacations, but I suggest you do the exact opposite. Go wilder. Don’t just ask for a few days, go for a few weeks. Here is why: Companies are exploring every opportunity to become leaner. They got used to run with a lot of overhead that now must be questioned. Have you noticed how the summer months are particularly slow in your industry? I bet some of your managers would approve a leave of absence without further consideration. |
 Global Culture Blog by Juan Gonzalez is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. |
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